Petaluma students head back to school

For students, the start of a new school year is a chance to renew friendships and meet new classmates; for teachers it is a time to implement new programs and try new ideas; for administrators it is a time of hope and refreshment; for all it is a time of excitement.

There are significant changes in both personnel and facilities at many Petaluma-area schools. The biggest and most obvious school project is at Petaluma High School, where Trojan athletes are getting a new synthetic turf field and track, along with a makeover to the tune of $7 million. Officials hope the project is completed in time for the spring track and lacrosse seasons. Plans to replace the campus swimming pool are now being reviewed by the Division of State Architect and work is expected to begin later this year.

Other Petaluma District projects include a new media arts lab and new facilities for the school’s award-winning student television program at Kenilworth Junior High; a new entrance and play area for McKinley Elementary School; the addition of three new classrooms as McDowell Elementary School adds a fifth grade; conversion of the computer lab into an arts and science center at McNear Elementary School; and a new elevated walkway for the F wing at Petaluma High School.

“We’ve done a lot of work to modernize our schools, and there is even more under development,” said Petaluma City Schools Superintendent Gary Callahan. “Right now we are about at the mid-point of our bond projects.”

The district has added 30 new teachers, but lost 10 to retirement. Three administrative positions have been eliminated as part of cost-saving measures designed to reduce the deficit spending of the last several years.

Petaluma and Casa Grande high schools resume their varsity football rivalry with the return of the Egg Bowl Sept. 16. The game will be the culmination of a series of activities designed to highlight community unity and collaboration between the rival schools.

There is a change at the top at the Old Adobe School District as Craig Conte takes over for Jason Yamashiro who left to become superintendent of the Dixie School District in San Rafael.

Conte is no stranger to Old Adobe. This is his 23rd year in the district, 18 as a sixth-grade teacher at La Tercera Elementary School and the last four as Director of Curriculum for the district. He has also been director of the district’s popular Outdoor Education program for 20 years. He is officially the “interim” superintendent, working on a one-year contract.

Other changes in the district include new playground structures at Sonoma Mountain and Old Adobe, new portable buildings at La Tercera and Old Adobe, a new track at Old Adobe and tile mosaics at the entrance to Sonoma Mountain.

The schools will have a familiar look in both the classrooms and the main office. Every principal returns as do almost all the veteran teachers.

The two schools that make up the Waugh School District, Corona Creek and Meadow, are beginning to benefit from bond measure funds approved by district voters last year. The first major addition is a new playground structure at Meadow. Both Corona Creek and Meadow have had what Superintendent Rebecca Rosales calls “health and safety work,” to replace and repair damaged sidewalks.

Rosales said the district has a new speech and language pathologist, who will work with students at both schools and a new special education teacher at Corona Creek.

Two new waterproof lunch shelters topped with solar panels will be complete by the end of September at Wilson School. The campus will be made brighter by new LED lighting and new windows for the classrooms. Tara Geoghegan has been added to the staff as a reading teacher. Kempton Brandis is adding new landscaping to the campus as his Eagle Scout project.

Superintendent/principal Eric Hoppes said the district will again try for a parcel tax that failed by just 1 percent of the vote last year.

Cinnabar begins the school year with a new superintendent/principal as Sandy Doyle replaces Tracie Kern. Doyle comes to Cinnabar from Lincoln School in Marin County where she was the principal of the small school. The new superintendent is very familiar with her new school. Her children attended Cinnabar where she volunteered in several capacities and she also served on the Cinnabar District Board of Education. Stephen Winston is Cinnabar’s new sixth-grade reading and running teacher.

The emphasis will be on diversity at this year with a new Meet America program that will bring speakers into middle school classrooms to address the ancestry of different American ethnic groups. Doyle noted that the school now has close to 300 students, with some classes at capacity.

The most notable changes at the St. Vincent De Paul schools are in the administration where Tom Coughlan is now school president in charge of both the high school and the elementary school. Both high school principal John Walker and vice-principal Art Walker have left the school.

They have been replaced by a four-person leadership team that will assume the duties of the principal and vice- principal. Kathy Atkinson will be parent liaison and oversee mediation. Michael O’Toole will be in charge of student life and campus security, Claudia Thompson will handle scheduling, student support and discipline and Anne Trott will be in charge of faculty and curriculum development.